Terrebonne School Board takes up redistricting next week

The Terrebonne School Board is set to vote next month on whether to tweak voting district lines to prevent board members from running against each other.

Matthew AlbrightStaff Writer

The Terrebonne School Board is set to vote next month on whether to tweak voting district lines to prevent board members from running against each other, a proposal some board members are calling gerrymandering.The board has debated for months how it will make required changes to its voting-district maps to reflect population shifts documented by the 2010 Census.The school board customarily approves the same map as the parish council. This time, however, the council maps have proved controversial because, if approved, they would pit four school board members against each other. District 4's Debi Benoit would have to run against District 3's Richard Jackson, while District 5's Brenda Babin would have to run against District 9's Hayes Badeaux. Benoit and Babin, the board's two female members, are the only members serving their first term. Jackson and Badeaux are multiple-term veterans. Several board members pushed in March to approve the parish council maps, arguing it would be the simplest solution for the board and for voters. That motion failed after some board members, backed by the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce, chose to “slow down” the discussion. The subject has popped up in both the redistricting committee meetings and full board meetings for months. The most recent proposed solution is a map dubbed “SB1” that would be almost identical to the parish council's, but with two district lines changed to keep each member in their current district. The changes are relatively minor — a slim slice of Houma's Main Street would be tacked on to Babin's district to include her house, while the voting precinct containing Benoit's house would be added to her district. If that map is approved, about 6,000 people would find themselves in a different school board district than their parish council district, said Kevin Belanger, CEO of South Central Planning, the organization that does the technical work of redistricting. Belanger said the changes are small enough that parish government wouldn't see any significant cost increases for administering the split vote.Belanger, who does similar maps for multiple governmental bodies in several parishes, said it's not unusual for boards to tweak maps like this.“I don't think it's wrong to do it,” he said. “It would be nice if we had one set of plans, but the council and the school board have two different purposes, and if they think a different map is better, they have the ability to do that.”The school board's redistricting committee recommended the board approve SB1 Tuesday night. That decision will be made at the regular school board meeting scheduled for June 5 at the school board office, 201 Stadium Drive.Before the board votes on the map, it will hold a public hearing seeking input from local residents. Voter enthusiasm and participation for school board elections are usually minimal. During the last board election, even the district with the highest participation mustered only 25 percent of eligible voters. Most districts had less than 18 percent turnout. Some of the board's members have protested the new maps, arguing the board shouldn't be changing district lines simply to preserve incumbents' positions.“It's absolutely gerrymandering,” said board member Donald Duplantis. “If you look at some of those lines, it's like a snake crawling in the grass.” Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing voting district lines for political advantage. Duplantis said the new maps would confuse voters who might have to vote in different districts. “The point of redistricting is, you attempt to make voting for the public as easy as possible so they can vote,” he said. “If elected officials draw the lines simply to make their own election easier, I can't support that.”But proponents of the new maps argue the changes won't have serious impacts on voters. Babin, for example, pointed out that thousands of voters parishwide are already dealing with separate council and school board maps, since the council was required to settle on its map before the board did. “I just don't think it's going to cause people problems,” Babin said. “(Voters) know the districts are different when they go to vote. It's right there on your voter registration card.” Babin took issue with the “gerrymandering” label, since the baseline map was also approved by a political body with its own interests. “We're using the council maps, and I don't see how you wouldn't say those are gerrymandered too,” she said. “All we asked South Central Planning to do in redrawing these districts is to allow Miss Benoit and me to continue to be in the district that we represent.”

Staff Writer Matthew Albright can be reached at 448-7635 or at matthew.albright@dailycomet.com.